Town Square

[8ball]

The Midpoint Town Square rivaled Midpoint’s Market Square in the amount of activity, but offered the citizens of Midpoint performances and government information more than items to buy and sell. The plaza spread out like a clearing among the buildings, but people still crowded the cobble-stoned plaza intent on listening to one performer or another government official explain the latest announcement, spending their brightening hunting for information and perhaps a bit of food. Soldiers of the Alyssan Imperial Guard patrolled the edges of the plaza, letting the citizens of Midpoint move freely in the interior.

In the center of the plaza was a large stone fountain that gurgled and bubbled water from under the fields around the Midpoint Fortress. The water flowed into the fountain from four serpents that surrounded a looming warrior with wielding a sword in triumph. Any citizen who cares to discover more about the warrior would see a metal plate engraved with the words:

Jerathell Starkwind, the Righteous; A legendary figure of many patterns ago responsible for numerous massacres of criminals. It is even said he was held responsible for the brutal killing of eighty of the notorious Shady Men.

In the northern corner of the plaza is a large black wooden stage where various performers come and go practicing their skills and offering their performances to the citizens of Midpoint. Spending a little time in the plaza, a citizen may see: an actor calling out lines of a drama, a juggler tossing various items high above his head, a student mage practicing arcana, or even a bard strumming on a lute and recounting a simple tale of noble courtly love. Government officials, though only rarely fortunate enough to get a spot on the stage, yelled out their proclamations, often waving a sheet of papyrus paper for any citizen to see.

Rumors from the recent issues of the Herald could be heard on the lips of various groups of citizens, but the rumors of the Empire competed with the rumors of the various scandals of Midpoint and the looming Fortress it hatched from. Copies of the Herald circulated and occasionally one would be found abandoned in a corner of the plaza or even left near the stone plaza. For citizens who wanted their own copy of the Herald, a merchant had a small stand in the southern corner opposite of the stage. There were few merchants in the plaza and they gathered in the southern corner to sell their few goods. The stalls of the Market Square didn’t see these few merchants as a threat to their profits and the Alyssan Imperial Guard overlooked their stalls with a few well placed bribes.

Next to the small wooden stall that sold the copies of the Herald, a dirty farmer had pushed a wooden cart against the wall of a nearby building. Inside his cart were various types of fruits and vegetables from his small farm on the outskirts of Midpoint and a price for any of the food could be negotiated. On the other side of the wooden stall, a lady stands behind a stall where she sells wheat and flour in small leather sacks and different breads of various flavors. The lady stood behind the stall with an eager look on her face, concentrating on any eyes that wandered near her stall.

By Sedhith Angornst