[IC] Into the Unknown

[Vektunaxa]

Alfius the Aeviternal, Fighter

Alfius sits at an unoccupied table and listens quietly to the geezer's tale.

[MonsterMash]

Decimus Numerous

Decimus passes Cog the further 2 gold and asks for an ale before joining Alfius at the table.

[Julius Sleazer]

Tacitus the Multiloquent

Tacitus shows the man a platinum coin and asks if they can arrange for a bath.

Cog, Keeper of the Public House

"Oh ho!" exclaims the man with delight. "Such a thing can certainly be arranged! Yes, sir!"

Cog launches into a frenzy of activity, shouting and yelling at various employees and issuing keys to various rooms. An errand-boy dashes out of the public house, apparently on an errand to fetch additional help. Decimus' donation of two more golden coins only causes Cog's newfound zest for hospitality to wax further.

"A most excellent day this is, masters! Why, you don't see something like this every day, nor every year even! I'll allow that it's been a little over a dozen years since I saw such rich gentlemen in my establishment. That time it was euhemerist enchanters down from Valeria. What trade do you ply, sirs?"

[Julius Sleazer]

Alfius the Aeviternal, Fighter

Alfius sits at an unoccupied table and listens quietly to the geezer's tale.

The soup-snoozing septuagenarian says little other than assorted mumblings in his sleep. The black-hatted man at the other table recounts a complex and vibrant tale of men in the north doing battle with orcish raiders. The two loons listening fall into an argument. One holds that orcs are preposterous creatures best fit for children's tales. The other counters most sincerely that orcs indeed once existed, but have long since been driven into extinction.

[thirdkingdom]

Tacitus the Multiloquent

Tacitus shows the man a platinum coin and asks if they can arrange for a bath.

Cog, Keeper of the Public House

"Oh ho!" exclaims the man with delight. "Such a thing can certainly be arranged! Yes, sir!"

Cog launches into a frenzy of activity, shouting and yelling at various employees and issuing keys to various rooms. An errand-boy dashes out of the public house, apparently on an errand to fetch additional help. Decimus' donation of two more golden coins only causes Cog's newfound zest for hospitality to wax further.

"A most excellent day this is, masters! Why, you don't see something like this every day, nor every year even! I'll allow that it's been a little over a dozen years since I saw such rich gentlemen in my establishment. That time it was euhemerist enchanters down from Valeria. What trade do you ply, sirs?"

Cadmus

Cadmus slides *another* hold coin across the table. "Tell me about these enchanters, please. What were they doing here?"

[Vektunaxa]

Alfius the Aeviternal, Fighter

Alfius casually asks the black-bonneted bravo whether he sojourned those northern lands and fought orcs himself.

[Julius Sleazer]

Alfius the Aeviternal, Fighter

Alfius casually asks the black-bonneted bravo whether he sojourned those northern lands and fought orcs himself.

Black-Bonneted Bravo

"Alas, I must admit that I myself have never crossed blades with an orc. However, I have indeed sojourned some of the kingdoms to the north. Once I was in the Salamander Kingdom, holed up for the winter in the walled city of Grauvia, and from the walls at night, you could see outlying farmsteads burning. The fires were set by orcish raiders, of course."

"Sometimes in the mornings, scouts and skirmishers would drag back the corpses of orcs they had slain overnight. So, while I have not seen a live orc, sir, I have seen them fresh-killed. I'm not speaking of any old skeletons found in caves or woods, either, but corpses pincushioned with arrows."

[Julius Sleazer]

Cadmus

Cadmus slides *another* hold coin across the table. "Tell me about these enchanters, please. What were they doing here?"

Cog, Keeper of the Public House

"Ah-ha!" exclaims the hosteler, becoming happier with each clinking coin. "They were men from Valeria, no doubt, possessed of great knowledge. For the most part, they all wore the conical chapeau. Some seemed like scrawny shuffling sorcerers, but others were broad-shouldered men burdened by bristling beards, as well as a great number of daggers and shovels."

"As you may guess, I did not inquire over-deep of their affairs, fearing to anger them, for such sorts are said to be quick to anger. Nevertheless, I heard them utter much mumbo-jumbo concerning philosophical matters, the relationship between history and mythology, and so forth. Put into practical terms, sir, and if you'll permit me to speak plainly, I grew to believe that they were highly educated tomb robbers who had heard tales of various treasures and dead kings from days gone by buried in the empty lands."

[Wyzard]

Tacitus the Multiloquent

"We're adventurers," Tacitus replies.

[Vektunaxa]

Alfius the Aeviternal, Fighter

"I have never seen an orc," Alfius confides, "but they sound like common bandits. Are you originally from the Salamander Kingdom? I know very little of it."

[MonsterMash]

Decimus Numerous

"I have heard many tales of orcs but not seen them. On our journey here we passed through a town where there were claims a wolfman had taken a man from there".

[Julius Sleazer]

Tacitus the Multiloquent

"We're adventurers," Tacitus replies.

Cog, Keeper of the Public House

"Meaning no disrespect, master, but 'adventurer' is but a polite catch-all for a man who is mercenary, tomb-robber, and regulator rolled into one, is it not? We here in this region are claimed by no king or queen, and therefore no standing soldiery shields us. Itinerant mercenaries might, perhaps, be emboldened to act where locals might fear to tread. Merely food for thought, as it were, sir."

[Julius Sleazer]

Alfius the Aeviternal, Fighter

"I have never seen an orc," Alfius confides, "but they sound like common bandits. Are you originally from the Salamander Kingdom? I know very little of it."

Black-Bonneted Bravo

"You may have a point, young buck," replies the noir-chapeau'd individual. "A man whose family has been slain by bandits is in much the same boat as a man whose family has been slain by orcs. Your contention has a certain cogency which would be difficult for any man to fully refute."

"As for myself, I am called Saxo Sang-Froid. I hail from the Vanishing Peninsula---about as far as a man can get from the Salamander Kingdom whilst still remaining in the known world. Nevertheless, I have travelled to the Salamander Kingdom, and can give an accounting of some parts of it. It is a realm where both danger and riches may be found, especially when the man doing the finding is a rootless individual with a bold disposition."

"If you are headed that way, I'd say you'd do best to head west until you hit the River Long, and then wind your way north by the riverbank, hoping to hail a boat sooner rather than later and thus hitch a ride the rest of the way north. I'd certainly recommend that over heading directly northwest. Should save you a considerable amount of tramping."

[Julius Sleazer]

Decimus Numerous

"I have heard many tales of orcs but not seen them. On our journey here we passed through a town where there were claims a wolfman had taken a man from there".

Saxo Sang-Froid

"Interesting! I myself have never seen a wolf-man, but I believe that they are real. I have met men who seemed utterly trustworthy and spoke of meeting such creatures---and fleeing from them."

"It seems that you are one who is interested in old and odd races. I tell you truly, there is a village two days' ride or so north of here. Edgewater, they name it. In the inn there, I encountered a dwarf named Cyril Oberlander."

"When I say a dwarf, I am not using that term and applying it to a little person, you understand? I mean the selfsame creatures or men from the old stories, the ones who dwelt under the earth in strange and majestic cities and amassed great wealth before their numbers dwindled and they became half-forgotten. This Oberlander---he apparently has none of his own kind with him, and is recruiting human veterans or mercenaries for some sort of expedition to recover treasure and heirlooms from an ancient place of the dwarves which has fallen into disuse and darkness."

[MonsterMash]

Decimus Numerous

"After having travelled far through the empty lands below here we would be interested in finding well remunerated roles, so we may need to seek out this dwarf and see what he is proposing".

[thirdkingdom]

Cadmus the Confused

Cadmus inquires of those within the inn if they have seen or heard of a simple clay bowl recovered from one of the ancient barrows that dot the landscape. "We have a client that would like to recover one that has been in her family for centuries, and was buried with her kinfolk, but when we went to seek it out we found that it had already been purloined."

[Wyzard]

Tacitus the Multiloquent

"We're adventurers," Tacitus replies.

Cog, Keeper of the Public House

"Meaning no disrespect, master, but 'adventurer' is but a polite catch-all for a man who is mercenary, tomb-robber, and regulator rolled into one, is it not? We here in this region are claimed by no king or queen, and therefore no standing soldiery shields us. Itinerant mercenaries might, perhaps, be emboldened to act where locals might fear to tread. Merely food for thought, as it were, sir."

Tacitus the Adventurer

Tacitus shrugs and indicates by gesture that he has taken no offense. "It's true that the precise character of our employment can vary wildly from day to day. One day we guard a caravan, the next we fight weird creatures in a dark forest, and the day after we struggle with the niceties of riddling and hospitality. Still, my group in particular are not reavers or bandits, although surely a plentitude of that type take the same professional appellation."

"We intend to inquire about a commission to recover this kidnapped lordling. If the matter comes to nothing, we'll perhaps go seek out this dwarf. In any event, we have no designs on your town. We have money and lack comfort, the situation can only be remedied by spending the former."

[Vektunaxa]

Decimus Numerous

"After having travelled far through the empty lands below here we would be interested in finding well remunerated roles, so we may need to seek out this dwarf and see what he is proposing".

Alfius the Aeviternal, Fighter

"Indeed. And then we will be able to tell our grandchildren that we fought alongside a dwarf."

[Julius Sleazer]

Cadmus the Confused

Cadmus inquires of those within the inn if they have seen or heard of a simple clay bowl recovered from one of the ancient barrows that dot the landscape. "We have a client that would like to recover one that has been in her family for centuries, and was buried with her kinfolk, but when we went to seek it out we found that it had already been purloined."

Various Individuals in the Public House

Those responding to the cleric's inquiries seem puzzled by the notion of making a long trek in search of mere pottery. A barmaid offers to sell him crockery. One man attempts to commiserate, stating that he himself has performed many foolish errands when a client has paid him well enough. It seems that if one were to assemble a local legendarium, tales of significant clay bowls would be entirely absent.

[Julius Sleazer]

Tacitus the Adventurer

Tacitus shrugs and indicates by gesture that he has taken no offense. "It's true that the precise character of our employment can vary wildly from day to day. One day we guard a caravan, the next we fight weird creatures in a dark forest, and the day after we struggle with the niceties of riddling and hospitality. Still, my group in particular are not reavers or bandits, although surely a plentitude of that type take the same professional appellation."

"We intend to inquire about a commission to recover this kidnapped lordling. If the matter comes to nothing, we'll perhaps go seek out this dwarf. In any event, we have no designs on your town. We have money and lack comfort, the situation can only be remedied by spending the former."

Cog, Keeper of the Public House

"Indeed, master. 'Tis surely better to trade money for comfort than the reverse, I would imagine."