Included for ease of reference the conversations, etc., from the Red Dragon.
[sblock=In The Red Dragon]
The door opens again and an immaculatly dressed halfling, wearing an intricately embroidered waistcoat, and what appears to be a powdered white wig, hurridly propels himself into the tavern and up towards the bar. He glances around, his eyes falling upon the massive Orc, and lingering as he swallows audibly. A bead of sweat forms upon his bow as he unfurls as scroll with nervous precision loudly clearing his throat.
"Ahem! Patrons of the Red Dragon, on behalf of the Bridgend Merchant's Association I Ped Huffgood - of Huffgood spices, cinnamon currently 25% off - request your assistance! We require a number of doubty adventurers to combat a gang of thieves who have recently begun to assault the honest and upstanding members of our association," Ped glances up from the scroll his eyes narrowing briefly,
"and Yarman."
"Those hired will be required to locate apprehend or slay the purportrators and recover any goods possible assuring their return to their rightful owners! Any who agree to undertake this noble task will recieve a initial payment of one hundred gold pieces with a further hundred to come upon completion and twenty percent of the value of any goods returned to Association members. In addition the succesful party members would also be entitled to a lifetime 5% discount from all members of the Bridgend Merchant's Association - which may not be used in conjunction with other offers or promotions."
With that the halfling produces a sack heavy with coin and places it enticeingly upon a table, seating himself after first pulling out a cloth and brushing off the chair. He places a piece of parchment upon the table and withdraws a quill and ink bottle from a belt.
"Any takers?"
"I am intersted," Midias says quickly,
"May the radiant glare of Hyrag burn these villains!"
The halfling squints at Midias,
"Ah, yes quite glory be to Hyrag and such. Now what would your name be good Priest?"
He holds his quill poised looking expectantly up at Midias.
"Midias Sunchosen, at your service."
The orc walks over to Ped's table, looming over the halfling.
"I am Sarn Irontusk," the orc says.
"I will help you, little one."
Huffgood sticks out his tongue as he writes in a neat copperplate hand.
"Sun, Cho, sen."
The halfling adjust his position and leans forward towards the cleric.
"Well Master Midias, or is it Father? We have prepared a few details for you to commense your investigations - though obviously we'll be hiring additional help for you." He hands Midias several pieces of parchment and spreads them out across the table.
"This is a list of the current Association membership, those who have been robbed are noted - myself included."
The list is written in a hand clearly different from Huffgood's and the name Gunt Yarman has been emphatically underlined in a slightly different colored ink - which appears to be coincidently identical to the one Huffgood is using. He points to a map,
"This is a map of the Bridgend Merchant's District - though we are currently expanding!"
He points to another document, bearing the official seal of the City of Orussus written in a spidery barely legible hand.
"And this is Sgt. Brodrik of the Watch's report, which amounts to a whole lot of nothing." Huffgood declares contemptuously, "Though he does claim to have ruled out the thieves moving out of the district after their last two thefts." He pauses and straightens the documents in front of Midias.
"And finally you have an eye witness. That being me! You see Mrs. Huffgood was rather upset with for, err, some, umm, late work hours and, err, asked me to spend the night at my shop. Mister Breen also suggested that you might wish to speak with the local thieves guild representative "Fat Sal", we pay him good money to keep our businesses safe and he swears blind he has nothing to do with these robberies."
Ciprinus gives Midias a wink "See, not such thing as waiting"
Then, addressing the halfling: "Count me in for your thieves battling work."
Since the druid is sited next to Midias, he examines the documents as well.
The halfling's lip curls as he sees the Orc approach, but he swifty gains control of himself and smiles weakly.
"Sarn Irontusk." He says as he writes the Orc's name, again sticking the tip of his tongue out as he writes.
He turns to Ciprinus,
"And your name?" he asks quill hovering over the parchment.
After taking the Druid's name he withdraws thirty platinum pieces and carefully places them in three piles of ten pushing one towards each adventurer. He then withdraws a small ledger from a breast pocket and places it beside the coin.
"Very well, if you agree to the mission I will need you to sign here, here, and here." His eyes flicker to the Orc,
"or you can just make an X."
"I know my letters, halfling," Sarn growled. Taking the quill, Sarn signed his name in a large, simple hand.
SARN IRONTUSK
"Ciprinus is the name, Ciprinus Leth'los" the half elf signs in a beautiful caligraphy.
Ciprinus Leth'los
Beneath the other two signatures, the cleric ones seem rather mundane.
Midias Sunchosen
Reis watches the messenger's speech with one eyebrow raised and a faint smile, clearly amused by the halfling's outfit and mannerisms. He watches the cleric, the druid and the half-orc sign their names and drums his fingers on the table idly as he thinks, sipping at his ale. As they begin to conclude their exchange, he fingers the hilt of his rapier and then nods to himself.
Rising nimbly, he approaches the halfling, inclining his head in a greeting halfway between a nod and a bow. "I am Ries Moinnael - if you can use an extra sword, I may be interested." He pauses, eyeing the halfling's parchment warily. "Put a hold on your scribbling, though. I'd rather not sign until you can tell us exactly what this job entails... for all we know, we could be signing up to track down an archmage and a couple of expert assassins."
He pauses, waiting for the halfling's answer.
Huffgood nods,
"Hmm well, they were no mages thats for sure and I doubt they were assassins. You see I was sleeping on the empty spice sacks when they broke into my attic. They were no ordinary thieves though, they were monsters! They wore cloaks, but I could tell they weren't normal!"
The Halfling seems to be warming to his tale, and his next words seem to have the ring of rehearsal for high drama.
"They had fangs as big as daggers, glinting in the moonlight! They spoke in somekind of weird language of guttural language - probably Orc. They were hunch backed too. Horrible creatures! I think they were trying to smell me, but fortunetly the spice sacks must have concealed my scent! Then they loaded made their way down stairs and helped themselves to thousands of gold pieces worth of my finest spices!"
He takes up his quill again dipping it in the ink and looking up enquiringly at Reis.
"So, can I count you in Master Moinnael? The job requires you to track down and apprehend or capture these creatures and recover as much of our merchendise as you can! They are most likely located somewhere in the District, say in the cellars of some Half-orc Butcher's cellar alongside his vile salamis."
Sense Motive DC 15
Clearly Huffgood is embellishing his tale, though the essense of it is true.
The half-elf shrugs his shoulders. "Aye, then, it seems a fair deal. You can count on my sword. I have also some small skill as a tracker that may come in useful, though I've never attempted anything like it in a city before."
Taking the pen, Ries signs his name in a flowing cursive and examines it critically. "Not as good as my Elvish, but it will do." He nods to Huffgood. "At your service."
Ciprinus narrows his eyes on the exaggerated tale of the halfling.
-[Sense motive: 23]-
"I think you may be exaggerating my dear halfling. Why don't you tell us exactlly how did they look. Keep that ale away before you speak again." he suggest.
Huffgood frowns up at Ciprinus,
"Well perhaps they were halfling daggers, he conceeds begrudingly,
"and I suppose the spices would have sold for hundreds rather than thousands - because of my aggressive discounting policy you understand. But they were pretty darn scary, probably mutated!"
The Halfling takes a last look around, counts out ten pieces of platinum for Ries and writes the half-elf's name beneath the others.
"Well that looks like our lot, if you'd care to follow me gentlemen I have a carriage waiting outside. Oh, and accomodation can be provided for free if you are willing to put up with, err, some company of the late variety - otherwise the rates at the Bard's Tale are quite reasonable."
So saying he picks up the ledger and the deplenished purse, stows his quill and ink and heads for the door.
Ciprinus follows the short man with a broad smile, holding his hide armor in one hand and his backpack in the other.
Sarn scowls, fingers the hilt of his greatsword over his shoulder, and follows the halfling, eyeing the snake curled around Ciprinus' shoulders curiously.
Reis shoulders his pack lightly and follows the others out of the tavern, closing the door quietly as he exits.
[/sblock]
