Zensuon: Crystal Age

Once the Coincidence, Twice the Problem, Three Times the Menace

Where our agents terrorize pier town as two groups did before, but perhaps this time it will be its, or their, end.

They arrived the next day at the pier town.

According to the map, this would be the only recorded gateway to the Zensuonian mainland, so they best make the most of it.

Conroy folded the map in case they met more than just brigandes this time. That, and the amount of people they met on the road has increased.

It seems the masses of groups kept either to the pier town or Break City. It made sense, they'd be the only established places to leech off of in their state.

The rest of the island was mostly forest with scarcely any real agriculture or game-hunting. Break City relied heavily on import and export. After all, Thrask and the Alliance needed a trade route, and they were the only ones, so they were invaluable. At least, that's what they thought.

Conroy couldn't see any ships immediately arriving to fix the problem, or the mages of Pileraf flying over to magick-away the mess. There was something else here, something that had to do with the Alliance, Thrask, Break City- maybe all of Zenson! And it was something that didn't matter at all to his mission right now. So I best focus.

Conroy could see guards in the distance. He looked to the Villager beside him, wearing green clothes and a cap, then back to the guards.

I hate these war zones, why did we have to arrive literally after a sudden attack by some dragons? Although I wouldn't mind meeting a dragon, get a hold of their scales...

"Alchemy-man, prepare for 'Wild Fire' " The green-capped Villager said as he strode on, snapping Conroy from his day-dreams.

The green Villager was walking to the front of the mob waiting by the closed barricade to the pier town. Unlike the subdued masses who were only seething with rage beneath, this commoner seemed to be starting to boil over. Thus, the guards were immediately wary of him.

The green Villager was looking dour and serious as if each of his steps meant business. The guards of course not being much for business themselves, took this seriously. They were more the middle-management types.

Conroy followed a few steps behind him with a cautious look on his face.

A guard, as expected, came forward to meet the aggravated-looking villager.

"Halt. Pass." The guard spoke with the tone of someone who wanted as little interaction with anyone else at this moment. Raising his hand to indicate a stop. His expression was weary seeing the unlikely duo of a villager and an adventurer travelling together. His glance seemed fixated on the villager, knowing he needed to handle one thing at a time and ignore the whole. Like every good guard should.

"A pass? Why should we need a pass to get into the pier town?" The green Villager said out loud, not quite a shout, but it was enough to make the ears of the nearby villagers outside of the town pick up their heads.

Conroy looked around. Yes, unlike in Break City a day and a half ago, the villagers seem spent up from trying to fight back. They had resigned themselves to waiting for food and shallow hope in the presence of the guard's weapons, access to food and fear.

"No pass? Back off." The guard grunted, his hand moving to his sword. A movement that seemed to make quite a few of the villagers react in fear, Conroy noted. Someone must've tasted it before.

When chaos hits and civility drops, the veil drops entirely. It's almost too obvious that the strong, in this case, the armed guards, have a hold of all the resources, while the civilians at the edge must be obediently kept. Maybe they're giving them some carrot alongside the stick so they won't riot into the pier town, maybe it has something to do with the pass. Otherwise, he couldn't see them just waiting out two armed guards over a measly wooden barricade.