Chapter Three


If one had to summarize the village of Quaroth in a single word, it would surely not be an easy task. The closest that a person could possibly get and still be anywhere near to accurate would be curious. Then there are other words, such as: unique, unusual, out-of-the-ordinary, strange... These too, are closely appropriate. For example - suppose you searched through every villa and township and burg that you could find, and picked out those few people you found to be the most unusual* and planted them all in one place - that place would be Quaroth. That’s not to say that it didn’t have its share of normal people. The town was full of them, and to the casual eye, appeared to be as any other normal town, bustling with families and merchants and normal, everyday activities.

Nobody seems to know quite how the town had gotten started or where its name originated, though it is rumored that a strange little gypsy fellow, who just so happened to answer to the same name for a brief moment of time found his way to this very spot and attempted to settle down.**

Quaroth housed such people though: gypsies, wanderers, nomads, travelers, adventurers and an assortment of miscellaneous riff-raff that had wormed their way in, little by little over the years, til they had acquired a good-sized section of the strange, but somehow still somewhat charming and peaceful town. The normal townsfolk, being kind and generous people, welcomed everyone in, regardless of their nature. Sure, it had its share of problems like all towns, but the majority of its problems lay in one place. North Quaroth.

Noone walked the northern part of Quaroth without a sufficient number of bodyguards, a small army of miscreants, or a large, sharp-edged weapon of some sort or another. Night or day, didn’t matter much. The rogues and thieves seemed to have no particular preference for shadow or darkness, it just happened to be more convenient.

*(those people most fondly referred to as “eccentric”, “unique”, “a little different”, “a couple sandwiches short of a picnic”... you get the idea.)

**(It is doubtful that he stayed for long, though this cannot be proven one way or another, as his name was changed so often that all accounts of the man were eventually lost amongst the history of mankind, and most likely also lost, in time, to even himself.)