Warren Folke

Warren nearly dropped his dagger on his foot as Anastri ran through what she had discovered. Two people had come here seeking the Sunless Citadel. An old guy with a tree frog and... Lycinth. Lycinth? How did he get here? More importantly, why did he go to the Sunless Citadel without me? He grabbed his dagger tightly and shoved it roughly into its sheath, trying to ignore the flood of memories-

but it was too late.

The city, rising out of the black depths of the cavern, strewn with a million tiny lanterns. Ssussun, the City of Light, never stopped being more beautiful than a starry night to Warren.

"Warren?"

That year, the year he left Ssussun, was memorable to Warren for a lot of reasons. Abandoning his home was only one of them.

"Yeah?" He remembered leaning on the saddle of his ruskan, the oversized lizards that were the steed of choice in the Under-dark. The drow who had spoken - Arris - was a fellow scout by day and fellow black-market dealer by night. They'd worked together for years, providing alibis and fudging records back to back. He was probably the closest thing Warren had to a friend.

That was the thing about the drow - friends weren't an option. And even to the extent they were, Warren himself wasn't interested. With no family but some distant relatives and his only ties in the shady trading business he had few opportunities to form connections like that. First and foremost, he followed the gold.

"We got another crop of flowers coming in a week from now. Should be easy money, but if you're interested I can cut you in as a bodyguard."

Warren was surprised. "Done." Flowers rarely needed guarding and Arris was right - it was easy money. "You expecting any trouble?"

"Not sure. There's been rumors that the Lilio have figured out there's a greenhouse. They might be poking around, but it's nothing serious."

Arris and occasionally Warren had been doing this beat for years, and it was only a matter of time before the Lilio - the divinely mandated armed force of the city - discovered it. The cities of the drow were strictly run and any item connected with the Surface was considered extremely suspect. Drow found in possession of one of these items could certainly be fined or killed for treason.

"I'm willing. It shouldn't be too hard to throw them off our tracks, and at the end of the day money's money." Warren urged his ruskan forwards and rode down the sloping mouth of the tunnel into Ssussun, Arris right behind him.

From closer up the eye was better able to pick out the buildings and towers of the city, made entirely of the same black rock that blanketed every surface of the immense cavern. The lanterns added depth, giving slight illumination and texture to the otherwise plain looking city. Ssussun was one of the larger Under-dark cities, being situated as it was by a massive underground river system which was perfect for transportation and gathering food (one of the main issues of living in the Under-dark).

As they got closer the city grew until it was too large to take in as one entity. They were riding down a long, sloping path that curled around the wall of the cavern until at last depositing them in front of the main road. Ssussun had no gates or walls - if anyone unauthorized so much as stepped into the cavern they wouldn't even know they'd been spotted before they were dead. Entrances and exits to the city were guarded extremely carefully, and the very few that had been overlooked by the Lilio had been memorized by the black-market types such as Warren or Arris.

Warren jumped off of his ruskan and led the way towards the cavern where they would leave their mounts when inside the city. "So when is this event?" he asked, tying the ruskan to the pole there for that purpose. "I don't expect to have to prepare that much, but there are some precautions that'd be nice to take even so."

Arris winced. "I... may have set it for tomorrow night. Sorry!" he added defensively at Warren's glare. "You know as well as I do that flowers have got to be sold as quickly as possible. None of that Surface junk lasts long. But honestly, this Lilio rumor isn't that scary even if it is true. They have a suspicion that there might be a greenhouse. Not exactly enough to inspire panic."

"I suppose," Warren admitted grudgingly. It was true that he didn't really expect to get raided. They'd been doing this for years after all, and just because there was a rumor didn't mean it was being acted upon. "I'll be there." There was a small tunnel system off one of the three exits to the cavern that wasn't being watched by the Lilio. It had a bunker, supplies, and their stash of emergency funds, but most important of all it had access to the surface. That was where they had hidden the greenhouse, the closest spot that had any sunlight.

"Great," Arris responded. "See you there." They parted ways, Arris going to report to the Lilio, Warren to prepare for the upcoming job.

That was the last time Warren had seen him alive.