thirdkingdom wrote:Reker Nus
Upon returning to see Nus the sage greets them somewhat more coolly than last time. "You have returned," he says, "have you reached a decision with the mask?"
Gardo
"Good sir! Greetings this day, Master Nus! Good to see you well. I first want to say that I thank you for identifying this
glamourbox here." Gardo hold up the Isenden relic. "Perhaps I will find that item that powers it and demonstrate it for you sometime in the future. You are deserving of that."
Gardo pauses and clears his throat a bit. "Now, about the mask and this misunderstanding that seems to have occurred with my comrade Newton. We do wish to sell it to you for your services, we would be foolish to try and get any other offers for it. I understand that you were rather put out by his counteroffer. It is understandable and I ask that you forgive our total dumbness. We are adventurers, braving some of the deadliest things that men can face and we are used to common men who are willing to haggle over prices. I guess that is our fault for thinking you are just a common man. Anyone who could figure out this lantern thing was a
glamourbox is not common, now are you?"
"Now, I was talking to my man, Mariusz, about this last night and he had an interesting thought. You see, the more you research things for us, the more successful we actually could become. What does that do for your reputation? If people hear of our awesome travels and deeds and learn that Master Reker Nus is the one who supplies us with quality knowledge, how much more does your reputation grow?"
"After he said that it reminded me of this guy I used to work with, Alger Split-eye. He was another one of my former boss's.... problem solvers is what he like to call us. Anyway, Alger was sent to collect a debt from this one guy who was not paying. I went with him to help find the guy and we tracked him to a bar a rival of my boss had and was about to pay him some money. We quickly grabbed the money and the guy and took him back to his house. There, Alger reminded the man who really should have been paid first by knocking the guy out with one punch then, taking this weird hand axe that he always carried, chopping the guy's left hand clean off. The guy woke right up when that happened too. It was one of the cleanest cuts I ever saw."
"We torched the stump to stop the bleeding and went on our way. Alger got a reputation from then on of being merciless, even though he really wasn't a violent or mean guy. He was just good with that axe. When people saw him, they knew our boss was real serious and they paid real quick. I mean, he didn't want to end up like the previous guy, Vernen, who went out once to collect some money and remind a guy who should get paid first. Only Vernen wasn't really good with any weapons. He could barely use a fork without stabbing himself in the face or hand. Vernen went to chop off this one guy's hand and he didn't do it right the first time, so he kept trying. I heard it took him fourteen times to finally get the hand and the guy's arm was so badly mangled that he bled out by the time the last chop occurred. I'm just glad I wasn't with him. His reputation really wasn't something the boss wanted around. The boss always said that dead people can't pay you money, you can just sell them for parts."
"So.... what was I saying... Right! Reputation! Think about this. Our little group has reopened the road to Kimrid. We have found a group of people called
siderenos, the Iron Skinned people, who we just introduced the daughter of the Baron of these people as a diplomat to the Scarlet Prince. And the Baron has some interesting books in his small library that would be very interesting to a man such as yourself. We are heading back north as it is and look to be facing a dragon sometime in the future. When we defeat it, wouldn't the reputation of Reker Nus grow if he was the one to supply us with knowledge to defeat the beast? I say to you, isn't our success that in turn grows your reputation worth something?"
"So, would you do twelve months or meet us somewhere in the middle? Can a deal be reached?" Gardo puts on one of his best smiles as he finishes.
It's hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally.
