The west gate of Sailoon ushered visitors into the worst of the city. Here, small houses and even smaller minds contended for space alongside artists, struggling families and despite the Gaurd's best efforts, a small sample of the population insisted on making their living via good old fashioned larceny.
Such was the case of the trio of young men that had been partaking of a bottle of ale they had aquired in a recent bisnuess encounter with a merchant.
Positioned as they were by the gate, they witnessed the arrival of the pair on horses. While there was nothing too remarkable about the travellers save that both wore hooded robes that obscured their features, the horses were a pair of matched stallions. Jet black, with bright, intelligent eyes, smooth, strong muscles beneath their shiny coats.
"Name and Bisnuess in Sailoon." Belched the gate gaurd. He was half drunk and his food splotched cloak, once apple green, hung loosely off one shoulder.
In answer, each of the new arrivals reached beneath their robes and withdrew a heavy silver pendant. The gaurd's eyes widened.
"My Lord and Lady! I'm sorry!" The gaurd attempted to stand up straight. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"No." Said the shorter of the two, the voice that of a woman. "But thank you all the same." The guard managed to hide a belch as he stepped aside.
"Yes Your Grace. Welcome back."
At this point, the trio mentioned earlier at this point in the tale had gotten up and, by combined power of their intellect, reasoned that the Lord and Lady were going to the palace, had slipped through the alleyways and were waiting on the street corner under the lamp.
Night was beginning to fall and a chill was in the air as the travellers approached.
Stepping out into cobblestone streets, the leader, a stocky, bearded induvidual, with flat, vicious eyes raised his hand, gesturing for them to halt, which they did.
"Good evening. My friends and I represent the Sailoon Wealth eqaualization society. It is our goal to see an eqaul amount of wealth among the entire citzenry of Sailoon. To that end, I must insist upoun a small donation from each of you." The taller of the two gently nudged his horse forward until he was side by side with his companion. But it was the smaller one who spoke.
"We're not in the mood gentlemen." She said, as the taller one opened his cloak and laid his hand suggestivly on his sword hilt. "Why don't you go play elsewhere?"
At that point, the second of the trio, a tall, thin, emanciated individual raised his arms as though he was drawing a bow and arrow, causing a small, glowing nimbus to form where the arrow would be.
"My friend here is a sorcerer of some skill." Said the leader. "Really, it is in your best interest to make the donation and then we can all go about our bisnuess." It was a blantant lie, the second man knew only the spell known as Flare Arrow. However, it had worked far too many times to count before, causing the fat terrified merchants and nobles that were their usual targets to quickly hand over their purses, begging for their meaningless lives all the while.
A gloved hand emerged from the smaller one's cloak and made a peculiar gesture before speaking two words.
"Explosion Array."