Attempt to bribe your way in

"I am seeking help in a very important task," you say.

The elf looks at you coldly and says nothing. Its long face fixed in a scowl and its wide, ice-blue eyes narrowed in hostility.

"Perhaps I can change your mind," you suggest and reach into your pack.

You bring out the leather coin purse containing the meager silvers you have. You hold the coins out to the elf and it sneers.

"Silvers?" it laughs. "To let a filthy human into our walls? You insult me. Begone!"

"Wait!" you protest as he takes a step towards you. "I could offer you other...bribes..."

You try your best to look at him seductively, fully realizing that your filthy clothing and smelly, mud-caked body probably offer little to a highborn elf.

"You offer me your body?" his lips twist cruelly.

"Yes," you say, quietly.

"This is a currency we know of in Elohin," he smiles. "I presume you do not offer me a permanent contract of ownership."

Suddenly you feel your stomach leap into your throat. Of course, the elves deal frequently in human slaves, so your offer of sexual favor has been taken as something more serious.

"A human such as you, fit and perhaps comely when it is clean, might fetch a three gold pieces per week in one of the **** brothels."

The elf strokes his long, narrow chin.

"Ten days," he says. "That would be, generously, four gold. A sum I would find acceptable to let a human such as yourself into the city. I will write an oath of ownership and you will sign."

He tears a strip of parchment and begins to pen the elven words of ownership. When he is finished he holds the ornate bone quill and the parchment out to you.

Ten days is a very long time. Perhaps too long. And the thought of binding yourself by oath to this cruel elf is terrifying. You could simply continue on your journey without the aid of anyone in the city.