Chapter Three

There I was, stuck with being in charge of a city. None of us really had any idea of how to run a kingdom. Myself, Phelps, Joshua, Cebo and Garflin became the town council. It fell to the gnome to advertise our city, and he did a fairly good job of it. In a couple years, Andronia had a full population, of shopkeepers, merchants, clerics and of course, thieves. We elected Phelps as our king; a figurehead king, with just enough powers to make him look good, but not enough to make him a tyrant. Cebo was allowed to manage the more domestic and diplomatic affairs, and Garflin became the head of security, despite his wild behavior. I was left with the duty of organizing the crime of the city, running the thieves and the scoundrels of Andronia, as well as the local rangers. Crime became legal there, as long as it went through me and my posse. It was better that way, really. As long as people paid their dues, the pickpockets and robbers ignored them. If not, they were in some trouble. The crime in the city became next to nothing, at least the bad sort of crime. We made sure murder and the like was punished severely, though never the harshness of Tabber’s regime. Speaking of Tabber, we heard during this time that he was dead, and that his son, Frederick, had taken power. It was a complete lie, of course, but at the time nobody knew that Tabby was a lich. For ten years we ruled Andronia. I was basically kept busy with political and business duties; running the town, spying on foreigners, and all manner of diverse crap. I took residence in a fine mansion, mounted Du Fiend’s head on my wall, and for a small portion of my life I pretended to be settled. I even thought about getting married for a while, and hosted a kind of contest amongst the ladies of the city; to see who was the best looking, the most cultured, the best conversationalist. I had no idea what I was doing, no idea what qualities I wanted in a woman, and in truth I had no intention of marrying the winner. I might as well have made them each go through a dungeon, fight a bunch of monsters and disarm traps. Hell, at least that would have gotten me a lady I could relate to. I ended up with some noble merchant’s daughter that I had no idea what to do with. She was pretty, talked nice, and had a good family; just the opposite of me. In the end I had to convince a contact in Lockinton to marry the girl, as I just couldn’t to do it myself. I was an indecisive bastard and I had no idea what I wanted with my life, and to tell the truth, I haven’t changed much to this day. I’ve never been married, never raised a family, and never wanted to settle down ever again. I can’t say I have anything against that kind of life, but I can say that it’s not for me. Maybe one day I’ll be able to love somebody, but it sure wasn’t that day, and when that someday comes, that girl had better be willing to lead the kind of life I lead, because there’s no chance in hell that I’m going to be some ordinary family man, for the sake of anybody. So the whole settling down thing never worked, but I got some good work done in those ten years, and I learned some things. I learned that I didn’t hate people as much as I thought I did. I actually liked being responsible for things, though I was never fond of politics. Running that city made me realize that I wasn’t just some thug, I guess, not just a scumbag thief from the streets. I could affect the lives of thousands, I realized: and that was an impressive thing. Still, I knew that I couldn’t stay there forever. Huron Blackheart is not the kind of man who will grow old somewhere and die. That’s just not me. An opportunity for change presented itself soon enough.