Excerpt 1: A 'Renaissance Man' at a Street Corner

Renaissance stands off to the side to avoid the busiest foot traffic moving along the wide street he's just turned on to. He's close enough to the granite wall of the nearest shop to feel the heat still coming from its wall. The air has cooled with the setting of the sun but where he stands it is noticeably warmer than just a few feet away. Some of the passersby carry too-good smelling skewers of roasted 'whatever the people 'round here eat'. Renaissance casts a hopeful glance to see if perhaps the shop whose wall he stands closest to might be the source of the skewers. It might be? It's got an over-sized club hanging vertically next to an ornate door. The club has words etched into its surface, 'The Gentlemen's Club'. He refuses to smile at the joke. This place might be the source of the skewers. He watches, long enough to know that it isn't. The door remains defiantly shut, despite his stomach's pleas for it to open and emit someone with the delicious smelling food. While his eyes focus on the doorway with Horusian attentiveness, his ears pick up a voice from around the building's corner at which he stands.     "Dervish? Is that you?... It is! How are you, Vast!? It has been a time, eh?"     "Yes, 'Tremis, it has been some months."     "What goes on with the Arm? Anything worth keeping from me?"     "I'll tell if you will, 'Tremis! I'm sure the 'Wards must have some information worth keeping to themselves."     "You'd be right! I know you'd have to have heard about the gates?"     "It's been a topic for weeks, yeh."     "But did you know that the gates also have a revealed a line that leads to the south?"     "Line? How do you mean?"     "Sorry, what do you call 'em? Chainlinks? Threadings? Cords, yeh, a cord. The source lines of magick?"     "What from the gates?"     "Unh hunh."     "To the south you say?"     "So far as we've followed it, it heads more or less south toward the capital. We haven't had enough time to trace its entire length yet though."     "I'd like to know the result, Extremis."     "I'll be sure to keep you informed. It's tricky as at some points it dives deeper under the surface."     "Yeh, I can imagine it wouldn't be easy. Who's doing the digging?"     "Not me! The Stewards are just watching the proceedings. There's two teams of diggers, who like the helms they're getting, to get dirty. Vast too."     "Really!"     "Yeh, just the one though. Name of, Arbooda. Know him?"     "Name, body and rep. He's a tough one. I've had a scrape with him a couple of years ago."     "How'd that go?"     "Well, he outweighed me by a couple so I had to get the badge out."     "He can't have lost any pounds since then. He's a big eater."           They continue speaking, not noting Renaissance's change in position to bring himself nearer.           "So Arbooda's in charge? That can't be a well run camp."     "No, he's just the heft. There's a knightdelver who's running the game."     "A 'Delver eh? That's interesting. Which one?"     "Shadur-Arcturus."     "The Striger. -- hunh."     "Yeh. He's actually alright. I've been surprised. Was expecting worse."     "Don't be fooled. He's liable to take your breath or someone else's. Will say it's necessary to appease the earth he serves."     "Yeh, he does go on a bit about the earth at that."     "Mmm."     "Well, what about your doings, Dervish? Anything you can share?" "Let me think... You know about Staves?"     "No. What's that?"     "Seems there's some action down there."     "Like?"     "Well, seems as though several fiends entered the city."     "Dervish, you have a way with an understated sentence."     "Eh?"     "You seem pretty calm about this"     "I wasn't there."     "Nonetheless! Fiends in one of your cities? That's a fair problem for the Armistice to have to deal with."     "True words."     "You must be upon something important if you're not heading to Staves!"     "You said it, I didn't."     "Care to share?"     "Love to. Can't."     "No?"     "Maybe later. After I check in."     "I'll be staying at the 'Riverbanks'."     "I'll knock you."     "Right."     The two speakers split away from each other. The larger one, whom you assume must be the "Vast" as he's close to 8 foot, heads past you with a flick of his eyes sideways the only sign that he sees Renaissance. He walks into the 'Gentlemans' Club'.   The other seems to head toward the Joyous Fairgrounds.