I’d been looking forward to this. 18 months of solid training without a day of leave. Finally, me and the boys had been relieved. Wasn’t an easy promotion from regular footsoldier to palace guard, but apparently, a 10 man Contu taking on two 15 foot trolls at once had been enough to recommend us on martial prowess alone. We’d been asked as a unit, jumped at the opportunity as a group, and suffered as a unit. But praise the gods, I was now leading them out to town for a night out as a group.

First time in civilian clothes in a while. I’d thought for sure at least Atropis was going to get kicked out for failing etiquette. The men were filled to the brim with pent up energy and bursting for release. We stuck together though - we were a long way from home now, both physically and socially.

This was, after all, Varadia - capital of the most mighty and cosmopolitan empire in the whole known world. Here, it wasn’t just humans and the odd halfling family as a village oddity. As we took the cobbled roads down heading from the upper to the middle city, we saw more than an occasional demi wondering past. Half-elves, part-fey and half-

“hey Deci, izzat guy made o’ rock?”

I looked over my shoulder, then up a bit – Atropis was taller than most. “Yeah, probably from way out east – Spirit blood or something. I see you still don’t remember the basics from the lessons!”

“Ahh lay off, Deci…” he groaned

“Not Deci when we’re off duty and don’t stare at the guy – he’s probably important if he’s in the upper city – might get you flogged if he’s mean”. Then I grinned disarmingly, “Sorry, no more lessons, that’s it for me for tonight”.

“Why is it that he’s important if he’s ‘ere then?”

“Because its expensive to be here, and if it’s not a human, gobbo or halfy, and he’s not in the lower city, odds are he’s had to travel hundreds of miles to get here”.

We continued on, leaving the grand villas and expensive markets behind, past the guarded bridge across the grand aqueduct which marked the boundary for the middle city and I breathed a loud sigh. Hadn’t realized how tense I was. No senators or dignitaries to be found here. Not that there wasn’t still trouble to find as you moved out and downwards through the concentric rings of the city, mirroring the social strata - but I didn’t expect anything we couldn’t handle. We went to find a bar.

“You’ve all worked your balls off to get this far, and I know there’ll still be some tough bits ahead, but seriously, guys, great job. These next 3 days we’d all better make the most of them, so lets start with getting absolutely SHITFACED, CHEERS!”

“CHEERS” – The men all roared, before everyone downed their cups.

You didn’t have to have a lot of money to be in the middle city, but you did to have some. This bar was certainly on the cheaper end but it was still a homely place, well kept and relatively clean. The beer wasn’t half bad either. Tonight might end up being a bit expensive, I thought.

Taking one for the team, I was the slowest to drink, and so tradition dictated I order the next round. A few patrons sat close had finished up their drinks with an eyeroll and departed, sensing we were only going to get noisier. A few others had moved closer and started conversations with us for much the same reason.

We were a bit of a novelty bunch of bumpkins, and they weren’t wrong about the noise. We got another round in us, telling stories about old army times when Alakaeus pulled out his dice and looked me dead in the eye. I raised an eyebrow.

“You know you don’t have the luck to beat me, right?”

“I got a good feeling about tonight. Ol’ lady Felix is on my side tonight, you can’t be lucky forever – she’ll stiff you sooner or later!”

“That’s exactly what you said last time”, I laughed, and brought out my own set.

A few more hours passed as we drank and played while I made back as much money as I’d spent on the drinks and then some. I tried to go easy on the troops but Felix was capricious. A few of the locals accused me of cheating, but a dice swap or two did nothing to hinder my winning spree and the story about me involuntarily ripping off the Legate softened their mood.

“’e just always seems to get what ‘e wants, whether ‘e knows it or not” Atropis mused into the bottom of his cup, wise enough to not try his hand. After another couple hours and quite a few more drinks, we staggered outside. The sun was gone, but occasional lights were hung from wooden posts on the main roads. Unwilling to head home, but unsure of what to do we milled about for a bit. It was our scout - slender, quiet Graekios who, (fatefully for me) suggested a visit to the lower city.

“I bet you just want to visit a whorehouse, can’t get a girl any other way?” a cry from the back of the group – Followed by some laughter.

Though feeling distinctly sozzled on my end, I thought Graekios looked genuinely hurt and rushed over – slurring out what was intended to be a defense

“Heyy hey no no don’t say that.. he never speaks enough and er, we, er, we should all listen to him for once, and if he wants a cheap lay I say we should all help”.

He looked as if he wanted to sink into the floor, but undeterred, I dragged everyone down and on.

As we walked, still raucous, the roads got twistier and the lights less frequent. A few larger side roads behind us and eventually we found a vibrant little square with a few stalls.

As the bulk of us moved for a bar, I suddenly noticed we were as out of place here as the upper city. This square made us seem a bit large, and after a look around, I finally cottoned on that this was because this was clearly a Goblin community. 3-4 feet tall, semi-nocturnal, pointy ears, a full gamut of facial features and jagged, carnivorous looking teeth - there was more amusement that hostility in their gazes.

Frankly though, we were a bull in a china shop - It seemed like every one of us had smacked his head on something as we moved from bar to bar. Not sure when or why but we’d started taking a single drink from each pub and moving on immediately, but not too long after I was utterly smashed. My senses were all a blur, and though I grabbed some food at some point (looked like a rat on a stick... which it might just have been), I’d lost track of most of the guys.A few I knew had thrown in the towel but I was sure Atropis and another one had said they were going to get to one more bar up ahead. Their tolerance was something else. At this point, my stomach decided it’d had enough and I ducked into a side alley for a few minutes. Gasping and wiping my chin, I kept following the lights strung above me.

Only in retrospect did I realize that I was still on the side alley.