"AYE, BOLGART!" bellows the largest of the men, a peasant who smells strongly of barn dung, walking to the bar. A pale man with red hair, and a dullard, uneducated look about him pokes his head through a serving window. "Dukes! I see you've brought your sorry arse and your dingleberry riffraff in to my fine establishment. I hope ye brought plenty of coin with ya'." He shouts back. His words convey hostility, but the tone is light-hearted. An established rapport between the humans.
"We brought enough, you bloated tick. Might'n have a little bit more if ye' serving up some of that Lava Drake Chili for lunch." bellows the large man. You've taken a seat in the farthest corner of the tavern, completely unnoticed by the hungry crowd. A young woman steps into your line of sight asking for your drink order. You wave her off, muttering irritably that you only want clean water.
"Not today. Tomorrow fer sure. I'll be puttin a big pot on to cook tonight. Today, it's carved wild turkey and mulberry sauce with them sweet lil' carrots."
"Odd choice of food, but as long as you pulled out the feathers this time, I'll take a heaping plate." shouts the fat man at 'Bolgart', the cook, who has dissapeared behind the window again.
"You'll take the same portion as the rest of my guest, you fat-bellied hog!" he shouts, giving the large man and his fellow workers a good laugh. "Haha, Bolgart", he says with a mirthful smile, "Yer not exactly a spring piglet yourself."
The group chuckles as they take their seats and accept their brews. Several minutes go by, water and food placed in front of you. You ingest them with no particular delight beyond satisfying the pit in your gut.
Partway through their meal, the cook referred to as "Bolgart" comes out and speaks, a bit quieter to the large man. Not wanting to miss their words, you grab your mug of water, pour it on the wooden floor and walk smoothly up to the far end of the bar, mug in hand, and excuse to get closer without being obvious.
"Yeah, I heard already. News travels fast." replies Bolgart. "Heard the poor boy is all kinds of bruised and swole'. Gon' be laid up for weeks at least. Poor lil' Abbie an' Archie had a number done on them, lil mutts aint never hurt a soul."
"Yea, worse n' all that is the got his entire earnings. Even took his ledger. He's 'bout done collapsed into a full on fit. Not sure how he'll be recovering. " says the large man, stuffing a slice of turkey covered in mulberry sauce into his mouth.
"Be relyin on those indebted to him to be honest I'spose" says Bolgart wiping his hands on his apron, as the young girl from earlier pours you some ale, grumbling something beneath her breath. You smile, hoping to deflect her from saying anything directly to you and causing you to miss the conversation.
"I'm just worried about who might've been so brave to break into the tannery and had the knowledge of how much gold he was keepin' there. At first, I thought bandits, but then..." the large man looks around and leans in just a tad, "I heard that the Remesiana shipment was laid out right in the open, and they didn't even touch it. What kind of bandits would rob the tannery, but leave a small fortune in fine armor untouched. I think maybe the Archbaron came to collect what was owed to him, and maybe a little bit of extra, from Louslik for all the negative things he's said the last few months. That's just pure speculatin' on my part though." he finishes, taking a large gulp from his mug.
"The Archbaron? Petty thievery? Seems a bit minor when he could just confiscate the taxes by law, but then again, who knows what goes through his demented head." As Bolgart finishes his though, he notices you and makes eye contact. A brief moment as he struggles to attach a name to your face, and when he realizes he can't, he grabs a shot glass and goes to polish it, his expression turning sour. "Anyways, guess I best be gettin' back and gettin' the meat diced for tomorrow's chili. Take care of yourself, Brent. Boys, I'll be seein' ya' tonight for drinks I hope. Work hard and bring me lots of shiny silver." The large man, Brent, and his workers say their goodbyes, finish their meals, and leave the tavern, leaving you alone to think on what you've heard.
After checking the Ledger stolen from the Tannery Wyran is able to confirm that one of the crates we over looked was packed with a few sets of freshly crafted leather armor, at least one set of which was Masterwork quality, and that the name "Remesiana" is a small town not to far from Longacre.
ReplyDeleteObviously it would have been to brazen of us to attempt to profit from the Armor if stolen but this just affirms Wyran's point that we need to be more careful in the future.
"It would have been beneficial for us to be able to leave clues and such pointing to a Bandit raid in order to further separate the Archbaron from this matter, but we were just a bit to rushed and focused on the singular task at hand." He points out casually, no doubt refering back to his desired plan to leave clues at the scene of the crime the night of. "Perhaps we can be more calm, exacting, and intelligent about such things in the future"? Wyran ends this last bit with an obvious look over to the Tengu (Jeremys charcter) fully implying that there is always more to a task then "Getting the job done" (quoting both he and Cimrii from that night).
Fire hides clues well.
ReplyDelete"Wouldn't expect a Thrune to be encouraging us to engage in larceny beyond that what we were hired to do." snickers Cimri. She flicks a used toothpick in the direction of Wyran before looking to Kol and making an obvious point to address him with her back to Wyran, "Razelago wants to meet again tonight. Says he has some tasks for us, and is willing to pay us double for completion. Ash House, tonight. Make sure you aren't noticed going in."
ReplyDelete"All this extertnal tension is making things quite awekward. Hopefully we can all stat focused on the tasks at hand. I dont mind it, just thought you mortals...i mean living beings.....i appoligize i mean people should know just incase it was not obvious. "
ReplyDelete