text: [Themes: fantasy, anti-hero, humor, fantasy, serious]
  
  Year 30
  
  Properly getting with Vera and relocating is the best decision you could have made you think. You definitely feel more at ease and not as stressed out all the time. And more importantly you've finally shaken off the effects of whatever it was that was fucking with your head before.
  
  Still, there always problems that crop up in your line of work. Nothing that can be done to eliminate that.
  
  "These Black Hooks are dumb ass snot nosed kids." You say.
  "Perhaps, but you know those type tend to be very eager to prove themselves." Vera says.
  "Maybe so, but I'm just not sure I want that lot incorporated into our organization."
  "Well the only other option is to wipe them out then, because I think you know from direct experience that two major criminal organizations in one city tends to lead to a whole lot of conflict."
  "Hah, I'd hardly call the Black Hooks a major anything. They're a gang of wannabes, but I guess you do have a point and everyone does have to start somewhere. Yeah, probably should try to recruit them now when they're young and moldable. Might be good to have some more local people and bolster our ranks a bit more."
  "Okay, so how do you want to do this?"
  "Talk to the leader and his lieutenants I guess. Martin is his name?"
  "Marco actually."
  "Whatever. Have some of our people go to one of their little hangouts to set up a meeting and explain to them if they don't accept the invitation then I'll have my answer of how to deal with them. Now are we certain that they are the only other organization in the city?"
  "Yeah, all other criminal activity in the city is mostly by independents and unorganized."
  "Okay, well we probably should start gathering them too in time, but we'll deal with the Black Hooks first.
  
  Vera kisses you goodbye to go perform her regular duties and get things rolling on the Black Hooks situation.
  
  A couple days pass and you've finally gotten your answer from the Black Hooks and apparently despite some tough talk by Marco, he's agreed to meet with you, just outside the city.
  
  Given what you know of him and the Black Hooks, they're a gang of youths that engage in a lot of petty crime such as punching old ladies and taking their coin bags. You're also aware that more than a few of them though are getting hooked on Purple Wish so that might play a part in negotiations. Though as far as you're concerned, this isn't going to be much of a negotiation, it's going to be you telling these wannabes if they want to be continue along their path of delinquency, they're going to have to start falling in line.
  
  You naturally get to the meeting a little early and have some of your people hiding nearby in case something happens, but honestly you're not worried. Eventually Marco and three of his people of them arrive. Two of them look a little jittery. Another one is female and given that she's hanging on Marco's arm, it must be his little trashy girlfriend.
  
  Marco gives you the hard stare to which of course you're quite unimpressed by.
  
  "I trust you know who I am." You say.
  "Yeah, you run that new gang called the Nocturnal League."
  "Oh, we're a lot more than just a gang."
  "Okay, whatever. So we're here. What the fuck did you want to talk about?" Marco says.
  "Hm, I'll ignore the bluster and chalk it up to nerves."
  "Hey! I'm not nervous! There's four of us out here and just one of you!" Marco exclaims, not knowing just how close he is to death at anytime.
  "Relax, it wasn't an insult, but tell me Marco, where do you see the Black Hooks in five years?"
  "Five years?"
  "Yes, that's what I said. Where do you see yourself and your gang in that time? What's the plan? Do you have a plan?"
  
  Marco just looks at you and then at his buddies with a blank expression.
  
  Predictable. Stupid ass teenager doesn't have a plan.
  
  "Well? Come on boy think! I know you lot engages in minor thievery and pointless vandalism. Were you planning on moving into drugs and whores? Get into the Qweepa fights perhaps? Unite all the criminals in the city into your little gang and take over all of Jicol's underworld?"
  "Um..."
  "Um? Um is not a plan you halfwit. Am I just wasting my time here?"
  "Okay! Fuck! I dunno! I mean I guess we want to be pirates."
  
  You shake your head.
  
  "Okay, you lot want to be pirates. Alright, do you own a ship?"
  "No."
  "You have no ship. Are you saving coin to buy one?"
  "Um..."
  "I'll take that as a no. Do you know how to sail?"
  "No."
  "Fucking hell, do any of you losers at least KNOW any fucking pirates?"
  "I do!" the girl says.
  "Hm, I bet you do." You reply.
  "Hey what's that supposed to mean?" Marco asks.
  "It means your little girlfriend is the only one here that at least has any connections, and since I'm a gentleman I won't elaborate any further since it's none of my concern anyway. My point is you fuckers have no damn ambition. You lot probably haven't even left this island have you?"
  
  The four of them again look down and at each other.
  
  "I thought so. When I was your age I had already killed several men, left home and was travelling the world!"
  
  Travelling the world might be pushing it, but travelling to Holgard is still more than these little shits have done. At this point you begin lecturing Marco about how their criminal activity is petty and amateur along with bringing unnecessary heat down by the Jicol Watch.
  
  Something about this seems familiar...
  
  "Hey! Get off our fucking asses! What gives you the right to yell at us? You're not our fucking dad!"
  
  And yep, that's what seemed familiar. Shit, you never thought you'd sound like your father, but you guess the old man's personality is there after all. In any case, you hope you're a little more successful than he was in getting some unruly teenagers in line.
  
  "Yeah, I'm not your dad, but here's the thing, I AM in charge. From now on, the Nocturnal League is taking over everything and you can either be part of that, or you can get the hell out of the way. The choice is yours. What you don't want is to be IN our way. Now I'm telling you lot this first because you're closest thing to an organization in this city so you're officially the biggest competition, as laughable as that is. You're also getting the chance to join a REAL one along with better training for all your youthful activity that the law disapproves of. So, you with me or not?"
  "So what happens if I say no?" Marco asks.
  "You're free to leave. Though I'd suggest that you go get a regular job like a barrel maker or go try to be a cabin boy on a pirate ship and pursue that dream because as I said, the Black Hooks as of now are a thing of the past." You reply.
  "So we have no choice."
  "Sure you do, just not the one you want. Look, I get that this is going to be the hardest for you since you're in a leadership position and you probably don't like people telling you what to do and all I can say to that is well tough shit. You're either going to have to suck it up or as I said, get the hell out of my way. Now if it'll lessen the sting to your pride, I can say, you may retain some of your leadership role in a limited capacity. I'm going to need help in assimilating the rest of your people and the smoother this goes down, the better off we'll ALL be."
  
  This ultimatum is met with some silence and then the four of them begin whispering amongst themselves. It's actually sort of amusing to you.
  
  Marco turns to you and speaks.
  
  "Fuck you. We're not joining." Marco says.
  
  You just sigh thinking that this was going so well too.
  
  "Oh? And that's what all of you have decided?" you say.
  "That's what I'VE decided."
  "Funny, because I could have swore I saw you conversing with your friends which signifies to me that maybe you AREN'T the leader you claim if you have to speak with anyone before making a final decision as important as this."
  "I AM the leader and I'm not following some asshole that's trying to scare me. I know some shit about you. You only just got here and only have a handful of people. The Black Hooks have WAY more than you. You don't look so tough and if you didn't have that pistol, I'd kick your ass."
  "Is that right?"
  
  Well you expected some resistance, but you figured it would be half assed negotiation, not Marco finding the balls to stand up to you.
  
  The simple thing would be to shoot him and get this over with since you're fairly sure the rest are going to fall in line, but you'll make greater point by actually humoring this asshole. Besides, he's annoyed you enough that you'll take some delight in kicking his ass.
  
  "Okay then, but first." You say and whistle for your people to come out of hiding.
  
  Marco and his people look a little surprised which just proves how dumb they really are if they thought you were out here alone.
  
  "Since I'm fairly certain as soon as I'm kicking Marco's ass, he's going to call for help, I want you two to make sure this is indeed a fair fight. Shoot anyone who interferes."
  "Wait, how do I know they won't shoot us, if I win?"
  "Don't worry, you won't win." You say and hand your pistol over to one of your people.
  
  Marco pulls a knife and begins to look for an opening to which to attack. You just watch him.
  
  "I want you three to pay attention, because what I do to Marco, I'll also do to you if you choose to follow him...well not you. You can have a position in the brothel." You say to Marco's buddies.
  
  Predictably this enrages him and he swings wildly at you with his knife, you easily dodge his clumsy attacks and with a few punches to his face, he's already on the ground.
  
  You then step on his wrist and take the knife from him.
  
  "Too fucking easy."
  
  At this point Marco attempts to punch you in the balls with his other hand, but instead you stomp him in the face. You then proceed to break his arm, he screams in pain and his girlfriend looks away while his buddies look like they've just realized how serious this is.
  
  You point Marco's own knife at his face and he's already crying and begging for his life.
  
  "No! (sob) Please! I don't wanna die! I apologize! I... (sob)" Marco screams.
  "Shut up! Shut the fuck up. YOU brought this on yourself. Up until now, you've just been playing, but this is what happens when you make bad fucking choices. There are consequences." you say as you prod the knife into his face so it bleeds.
  
  "However, you're fortunate that today those consequences aren't fatal."
  
  You stand up and step back while Marco's people slowly go see to him.
  
  "You change your mind?"
  
  Marco of course says he does and his people do as well.
  
  "Good, now go back and tell the rest of your gang about the change in leadership. Also assure them that they all stand to make more coin and who knows maybe you lot will actually scrape enough to buy a ship one day. In the meantime Marco, I'm going to be counting on you to make this transition smooth. I don't want to have to straighten out the rest of your gang the way I had to with you, I don't have the fucking time. Understand?"
  
  Marco nods his head and thanks you for not killing him.
  
  "Yes, well I am the nice one. Now get the hell out of here."
  
  Marco and his crew leave as quick as they can and head back to Jicol. After chuckling a bit with your own people and taking your pistol back, you do start to do likewise.
  
  Or at least you try to.
  
  You're not used to stomping about the jungle area outside Jicol and unfortunately you end up getting turned around and lost.
  
  You begin cursing as your two underlings try not to anger you any further by staying silent. As you're still wandering through the jungle you stumble upon a ruined structure. Looks like a temple and by its design it looks like one dedicated to Fel.
  
  Seeing as it's starting to get dark, you half wonder if you shouldn't just take shelter in here for the night and start fresh tomorrow. Not to mention there could be something of value in there.
  
  > get back to Jicol
  You need to get back home as soon as possible; you really don't want to be out in the jungle after dark, especially in some ruined temple. Who knows what the hell is living in that thing.
  
  After a big of retracing and thinking, you and your people eventually remember the way back to Jicol and you're breathing a sigh of relief since it truly would have been a silly thing to get yourself lost and killed in the wilderness.
  
  When you get back to Vera she asks what the hell happened since you were gone so long. She nearly called the rest of the League to go attack the Black Hooks. You explain everything.
  
  "You let him live? You sure he's not going to try to get revenge someday?" Vera asks.
  "He might, but I'm not particularly worried that he will. Right now he's got proper fear in him and he'll get the rest of the Black Hooks in line with the League. They've been following him this long so they'll listen and in time his influence will be less as we split them up and have them work with other people. I mean yeah I could have shot him, but I think not killing him was the better play in the long run." You say.
  "I guess we'll see."
  
  In the months to follow, the Black Hooks do indeed fall in line and you've expanded the League greatly as far as membership is concerned. Of course there's a lot of training involved, but thankfully many of them are quick learners after all. It's also one of the major competitors out of the way and when you get better consolidated you'll be able to move on to the independent folks as well.
  
  You'll soon have this city's entire underworld under the Nocturnal League's control at this pace.
  
  Year 31
  
  "What the fuck, I thought nobody else here was organized!" you exclaim.
  "They weren't, but I guess when word got around about what happened with the Black Hooks, the independents formed a loose alliance. They call themselves the Jicol Coalition of Rogues." Vera remarks.
  "They can't actually believe they'll win." You say.
  "Maybe not, but I believe that they at least think they'll make things harder. Maybe even to the point that you'll give up." Vera remarks.
  "Yeah, that's not happening."
  "Well that means war then, but I have to remind you, we can't just start stabbing people in the streets. The Jicol Watch isn't as corrupt as the Holgard Watch was, in fact they've been starting to become a pain in the ass and I'm getting concerned that they're going to actually raid our headquarters one day."
  "Yeah, I know. It's been a concern of mine too. Now that the League is bigger, we're probably attracting a lot more attention.
  "Maybe we need to relocate."
  "Well we could do that, but the city is only so big. Eventually we'll have to relocate again. (Sigh) One of the things I didn't think I'd miss is the spacious sewers of Holgard."
  "Didn't you say you saw a structure outside the city, in the jungle?"
  "Yes after meeting with Marco, when I got lost I found that ruined temple. We didn't explore it really though. Actually always meant to go back to give it a proper look though. I believe it was dedicated to Fel."
  "Oh. Well I was going to suggest that we make our base there. I mean regardless of what they do in the city, the Jicol Watch are definitely not going to harass us out there, but I'm not sure if I want to do that if it was a temple dedicated to Fel."
  "Hm, that's not a bad idea though. I mean it might it be a bit of a trip and take some work in cleaning up, but having something defensible like that would be a lot better than the current tavern front we're operating out of."
  "That sounds fairly labor intensive, not to mention dangerous and I'm still leery about making Fel Temple our base. I was part of the Syndicate and saw some of the shit Rook could do with Fel's divine power. I wouldn't want to piss off a god."
  "Yeah I've seen shadow magic as well by EC members and the actual priests, but honestly, I'm more concerned with more corporal trouble than divine right now."
  "Again, I suppose it's up to you and I'll support your decision, but I feel like this is also going to take time away from combating the JCR."
  
  For all the issues with this, you're convinced that this is going to be better in the long run.
  
  "We're taking that temple and as for the JCR, there hasn't been any real aggression yet. I mean from what you've said, they aren't really united except in defense against assimilation. Unless they attack, we'll hold off for now, and perhaps in time, we can lure some over without the need for combat. There will be a day of reckoning though."
  
  The month clearing out the ruined temple is a grueling process. It fortunately isn't inhabited by anything worse than some over sized spiders and a shitload of qweepas. You mostly use the ex-Black Hooks to do a lot of the grunt work, even if they grumble a lot. Marco's keeps the louder ones in line, but eventually even he has to complain when it turns out there are a lot of traps in the lower passages of the temple that have killed a few of them.
  
  After a bit of going back and forth of explaining that disarming traps is part of their training, you ultimately give them a break by stepping in and helping out directly.
  
  When you get down to the lower passages, you can sort of see their complaints, considering it's like a maze down here. You nearly trip some of the traps yourself, but thanks to your years of skill, you avoid any injury (and impress some of these ex-Hooks all the more)
  
  What is more interesting to you however is when you stumble upon rooms still filled with a few objects. Mostly vases and such, but you do find some more valuable items as well. Soon you've got a bunch of teenagers arguing over treasure and you have to remind them...
  
  "Not sure what you lot are arguing about, all this shit is going to me first, especially since I was the one who disarmed most of these traps in the first place. In any event we can probably get a good price for most of this stuff and the League could always use more coin in the general treasury." You say.
  
  At this point you tell everyone that they can finally head back to the city to return to their former duties, which they seem relieved about.
  
  You spend the next day just you by yourself in your new future headquarters as you go through the various valuable objects trying to appraise how much you should be able to get for them.
  
  As you're putting a vase aside, you suddenly hear something and you draw your pistol.
  
  "Before you start shooting, it's just me. I see I came just in time to see you giving the children a break." Vera says slowly entering the room.
  "Vera? Didn't expect you to come here so soon." You remark.
  "Yeah, well I figured I needed to get over my fears if this is going to be our new headquarters. I have to say, it is a lot better than that front we're currently using. I still have my concerns though. Are you really sure we're not pissing off some divine being doing this?"
  "I dunno, but I'm guessing if Fel really didn't like it, he would have already killed all of us with shadow monsters by now."
  "Not necessarily, he could just do it over time. He is a god after all."
  "True, but I remember something you said. We could all die randomly at anytime, but it doesn't necessarily mean there's any curse or greater reason behind it. Just means shit happens."
  "I suppose that's true. Still, if we do start seeing shadow monsters, I think we should just get the hell off the island and not look back."
  "Works for me. So any information of what's going on with this new coalition of independent rogues? Like maybe who the leader is?
  "Nothing new. Still can't figure out who is the leader yet. Then again it's supposed to be a defensive alliance against us, not a proper organization."
  "Yeah and that's bullshit. The Thieves' Guild was supposed to be a so called alliance of independent rogues as well and they definitely had a leader. Someone always has to be calling the shots at the top of the pyramid. The fact that we haven't found this person yet indicates to me that they got much more in mind than simple defense. My other concern is the Jicol Watch. While this temple will keep us from getting completely fucked over if they ever come down hard on us, it still doesn't change that all of our businesses could still be fucked in the city."
  
  Vera starts to speak and then stops.
  
  "Seems like you have something to say. Out with it, I think we've gotten to a place in our relationship where we can talk about anything now." You say.
  "Well I was just thinking, I over heard some of the Black Hooks saying once that there was an abandoned dock not far from this temple that nobody uses anymore. We could probably fix it up. Strong arm some carpenters and wood workers to do it and get some of our people to do any extra needed labor." Vera says.
  "Hmmm, I see where you're going with this. You're saying we wouldn't have to rely on Jicol's docks to trade with pirates, smugglers and some corrupt merchants if shit really went bad for us. Good idea, but I can't imagine the government is going to just let us get away doing that."
  "The Jicol's government is fairly hands off at times. Considering they let pirates dock in the city as long as they aren't pillaging or causing trouble, they probably aren't going to care about what we're doing out here. I mean that's why we're setting up a base out here right? In fact, I'd say they'd probably prefer it if those type came over here instead. In time we could probably build up a small trading outpost and move some of our businesses out of Jicol entirely."
  "Sounds like you're talking about building a city."
  "Maybe nothing so grand as a city, but something like a smaller version of Hessla except with us in charge."
  "That's a nice idea, but this all seems pretty damn expensive and keep in mind we still don't even have control over all the criminal activity here."
  "Yeah I was thinking about other potential avenues of revenue too and while I know you were against it before, I REALLY think we should go into it now..."
  
  You already know what Vera is suggesting.
  
  "Slave trade." You say.
  "Look, I know how you feel about this and back in Holgard it didn't matter as much since it was a bigger city with more options, but here? We're in a perfect position to take advantage of the thriving slave trade in this area." Vera remarks.
  "Thriving slave trade? As far as I know there aren't any slave rings in Jicol."
  "Exactly! There has never been enough organization to do it right here. We could set up shop and as I said, slaver and pirate ships come here all the time for supplies or rest and he Jicol government doesn't give a shit as long as they aren't trying to pillage the place. If we have our own dock, we could easily start selling slaves without even the hassle of potentially getting shit from the Jicol government."
  "So where are we getting these slaves again?"
  "Well we are at war with the independents right? I figure we can start with them. We got this big new base now, plenty of places to keep them in chains."
  
  Vera's suggestion solves a few issues you suppose.
  
  Maybe it's due to recently discovering that you murdered several innocent women and blacked it out that's changed things, but for whatever reason engaging in slave trade just doesn't seem to repulse you so much anymore.
  
  If word gets out that you're selling your enemies into slavery that could scare a lot of folks into joining. Getting killed is one thing, but getting turned into a slave might be enough to give some people pause.
  
  "Okay Vera, I can see some advantages for us going into this business and since you've got all the expertise, I'm going to hand this task for you to oversee." you say.
  "Great. I'll start letting my pirate contacts know that we're in the slave trade business. Word will spread and I can't wait to get started!"
  "Hm, well I guess we better get started on getting all this up and running. I guess I should ask though, what is it with you and the slave trade anyway? Not that I would ever profess to be a Jochim saint, but I can't say I'm going to necessarily enjoy this."
  "I dunno, I guess because when I did it before I was really good at it."
  "Well you're good at a lot of other things