Oolok's memories...

The trip to get Oolok's fathers weapons, was a walk into the poorest most dangerous neighborhoods of the cities slums. The farther you walk the closer you moved to the burly half Orc, if you had thought you had seen the worse of the city before. You quickly came to understand that you had seen nothing at all, things had started out much like the streets around Oolok room. But just a few streets over you started noticing the differences, it was subtle at first a few more made up females strutting around. The buildings here looked older and even more run down that the buildings around where Arlen's pub was located. The stone somehow looking more weathered, the exposed wood... silvery and in great need of being replaced. Glimpses of harsh faces peering out of alleyways, eyes predatory watching for the unaware or intoxicated. Oolok made sure that you walked on his street side, the big half Orc's eyes glaring coldly into the shadows of those alleyways. You noticed that there was only one grizzled city guard in this area, had be walked down the center of the street with his hand on his sword hilt.

A few streets farther and the females had disappeared, now it was the rough scared males that had been hiding in the alleyways. They seemed to collect under street lamps, in three's and fours silently glaring at you as you past by. Oolok had moved you over to his other side now, the big half Orc had taken out a batter old black leather glove. Letting it dangle from his belt in plain sight, it was strange that he only had the one glove. But you couldn't help noticing that the rough looking men, seemed to back off the moment that they noticed it dangling there. While the buildings looked like they were almost ready to fall down, the exposed wood rotten and ramshackle. No stone here... only mud bricks that looked so weathered they were almost crumbling under their own weight. There were no city guards patrolling these streets, it was like thee watch had utterly given over the garage covered slums to those unlucky enough to live there... The smell in the air was putrid, rotting garbage mixed with open sewers which were clogged with dung.

And still on you walked... the buildings turning in to rotten barely standing shacks. The streets even more clogged with refuse, full of nasty mud-holes where flag stones had been pried up. To sell or use as weapons... you weren't sure what would make people to such a thing. The people you saw were either laying drunk or dead, or raggedly dress shadows who scurried away from you the moment they saw you coming. At last Oolok paused, looking around was it searching for some landmark that you couldn't see. “Alright this way.” He lead you down between to leaning shacks, at last coming to a ancient rusty sewer grate walking over to it. The big half Orc grabbed the metal and pulled, twisting it back and forth for a long moment until it came loose. “See you get to visit all the best places around me. And you thought I was joking about my summer home being a sewer.” Oolok joked as he helped you drop down into the old sewer, which you were glad to see was surprisingly dry. Although the smell was of old dung that had broke down into dirt, quickly the half Orc joined with with a hefty rock in his fist. “Dagger out... dunno if anything nasty has moved in.” He grunted making you draw that glowing Elfin dagger quickly, as he look around the old sewer tunnel. Slowly Oolok leads you down the tunnel maybe fifty yards, until he comes to a spot where the old brick were stacked oddly. Lifting his leg the big half Orc kicked the bricks hard, you watched as that bit of wall collapses revealing a hidden alcove. Reaching inside Oolok grabbed a old leather back pack, dragging the dust covered old bag out. You can see the hilt of a massive old weapon jutting out the top, slowly Oolok opened the pack looking inside. “Da hid his weapons and armor here... showed it to me once back when I was just a whelp. I ever tell ya about my Da?”

“No...” You grunt feeling strange as you look into the big half Orc's watery eyes, you had never seen him so emotional. “Was he really a full blooded Orc?”

“Yeah... but he had a kinda accident ya see... something to do with a human magic user and a spell gone wrong. He couldn't really explain it, but the misfired spell made him smart... smarter that his chief... even smarter than the village shaman. That really pissed them off... so they ordered him killed... it was a close thing. He managing to escape from all those warriors, he was fighting and running for weeks before he got far enough. But then he was a lone Orc... with no tribe he should have been dead pretty quickly. It was just luck that he met my mom, she was a thief in a human adventure party. He stumbled across them at a bad time... well it was bad for them anyway they were getting slaughtered. Mom was screaming for help, when she saw Da... she figured that was it they would all die. Only Da helped them fight off the creature that was killing them, helped mom drag the wounded to a safe location. Guarded them while mom went to buy healing drafts, anyway after that he became part of the party. And the two of them started... hehe well they made me so mom wanted to come home so that's why I'm here. They settled in the slums, she went back to working for the thieves guild while Da worked the docks unloadin' ship's. They died of the blood plague when I was little, my mom's brother in the thieves guild raised me. Got me in the guild... which was why I worked as a mugger for a few years. But I wanted more, the guild keeps most of yer money if you work for them see. Come on lets get out of here... to many memories I hate this place.” Oolok splat and you got the idea he didn't mean the sewer or even the slums so much as the whole city.