"Hey, Kid, come over here a moment." Someone in a group called out to Hal, drawing his vision away from the clergymen right as they turned a corner.

Hal approached the circle of people cautiously. They weren't a mean-looking group, just dirty, something that was common in the slums. They sat around a crate someone had pulled into the shade of a building, likely to gamble amongst themselves or have a drink of whatever one of them made in their backroom.

"Relax, kid, even if we wanted to try anything, you'd wipe the floor with us. None of us are anywhere near tier 2." The one who'd called out to Hal spoke again before gesturing to a short box beside the crate. "Have a seat; we want to talk to you."

Hal took the seat quietly, content to let the man say his piece. As he'd guessed originally, the men appeared to be gambling on some game involving five-sided sticks of varying lengths. While Hal waited for someone to speak, one of the five men rolled two of the sticks. Both landing on a single scratched in X, to which the man hung his head and pushed two small dark coins into the center pile.

"We've seen you around here a lot; you're one of the few delivery kids who will come out to the slums. We also know what you did to Teld."

"That's the orcs you messed up a while back," one of the other men saw the look of confusion on Hals face at the name and cut in with a bit of clarifying information.

"Thanks for that, by the way. Hated that guy." A third man said

"Right, well, we know about that." The first man continued. "And what happened to anyone else who tried to attack you. They usually calm down a bit after you get ahold of them. Thanks to you, the slums have gotten a lot safer and calmer thanks to you, so we wanted to thank you," The man's voice got significantly lower for the last part of his sentence, "and warn you."

"Warn me about what?" Hal asked while watching another man get what appeared to be another lousy roll, adding four coins to the center's small pile.

The one who continued talking wasn't the one who'd been speaking up till now, but the dirtiest of the bunch who sat closest to the building. "You been seeing the church around today?" He asked in a way that made it clear he was expecting the answer to be yes. "Well, that's what we wants to warn you about." The man said matter of factly.

Maybe Hal looked confused, or perhaps the man thought he needed to explain a little further, but regardless, the man spoke up again. "Them clergy come round every few years to clear out the slums. They don't like that the lords don't care to check whose hiding out round here. So when they get the inkling, they come through to burn out any cursed who've taken to living here." The man rubbed his nose on his sleeve, leaving a black streak across his mouth.

"That's the gist of it, kid. We like what your presence around here has done, and we don't want you to get killed by some overzealous holier than thou type folks." The final man said. "We don't think anyone around here will sell you out, but it'd be best to steer clear for a little bit. To be safe."

>I think we should listen to them >Any particular reason? >No. Only a feeling.

"Thank's for the information," Hal said respectively while standing from his seat. "I'll be cautious about coming here moving forward." Hal finished while turning to complete his job for the day.

"They were good people, and the warning they gave delayed the inevitable, but not everyone in the slums was as tight-lipped as those five," I spoke across the fire.