WAS: Quietly slip away while they are arguing among themselves
From Create Your Own Story
Not wanting to take any risks, you discreetly slink away into the bushes while the hunters argue. When they finally came to an agreement you were far too deep in the woods for them to want to pursue you. To be on the safer side you decided to continue journeying off the roads, which was considerably more complicated, but not impossible. Before midnight you had left the forest and at dawn the towers of Ureveh stood up glistening and topaz-tinted on the southern coast, its walls and buildings overshadowed by a magnificent palace that was like a graceful monument in the horizon. A wide, sandstone paved street lead up to the heavy bronze gates guarding the city, and it was littered with merchants and settlers wanting to enter.
You had thought to one day visit this city, which nobles in the Seven Mountains called the Crossroads of Alcovia. According to rumor and hearsay, it was a hub of commerce that other city states envied, and its ruler was Ashurabi, whose feasts apparently were a sinful splendor that the richest nobles could only dream of. It was a city where gold flowed like blood, and where only the cleverest could make their fortune.
This would be a new beginning. Whichever one of your brothers that had seized the throne back home would never find you in a metropolis of this size, and so you are finally able to leave your old life behind and forge out a new one from the opportunities that lie ahead.
As you make your way through the crowd to the bronze gates, a guard in lamellar armor halts you with his halberd.
“Reason for entering Uruveh, the pride of gods and mortals?” he then asks administratively and monotonic, in an accent foreign to your ears. You are not used to being treated like a commoner by guards, and it is especially frustrating due to your noble lineage. Irritated beyond compare, you answer him forcefully, as though threatening the man:
“My business is my own and of no concern to you, dog. I advise you to step aside and let me be on my way.”
He huffs in surprise, taken aback by the sudden hostility. But despite clearly having been insulted, he seems reluctant to confront you about it after noticing your physique, and so he lowers his halberd and steps aside instead, allowing you to enter. You pass through the gates triumphantly; pleased at having asserted your dominance, even if it was over someone you’d never see again.
Inside, the city’s splendor surprises you again. Temples, shops, mosques and mansions are all found in abundance, some buildings so tall that you have to bend your neck all the way back just to catch a glimpse of their domed roofs. The streets are crowded with horses, wagons and various people with skin colors and clothing which you have never seen before, and you guess them to be traders and mercenaries from distant lands. Towering above everything is the distant palace, as grand and imposing as a shimmering statue.
All these sights overwhelm your spirit with awe, and you need to figure out what the next course of action should be.
