One look at the man in the corner is enough to understand that he's not the most intelligent of people,
"Ole' Blagarm rang the 'Trouble Bell'." the thief indicates a small bell hanging on the wall behind him tied to a string that disappears up into the ceiling of the cellar (evidently the barkeeper rang the bell from behind the bar before the party entered the cellar),
"Aftah the las' time 'e didn' wan' tah take ani chanches." The thug goes on to confess that he's a thief, but swears that Blagarm is behind all of it. He keeps nervously looking over in the corner where the 6th cask used to be as if he thinks something there is important.
Jin sees that the secret entrance has been bricked over where the cask had been removed, and, upon examination of the shoddy brickwork, is able to discern the outline of the entrance to the passage.
"Fenwick explain briefly earlier, but now will expound in great detail." The big orc stands up and smiles toothily at Mervin.
Mervin attempts to smile back politely, but it looks more like the smile a girl gives to the class nerd when he brings her flowers.
See, beer-man Wayne have magical necklace formerly belonging to wife, which make something magical happen when Wayne drop necklace in basement....So we go into basement, and find secret panel behind big cask, which not full of strong drink, unfortunately for people who want to drink."
Mervin casts around the room,
"So you're saying you found a secret panel behind one of these barrels? Where?"
"...We also find papers. Papers talk about guy named Hankel, and talk of more treasure to be had."
"Who the %$@! is Hankel?"
"...We back in tavern sitting there when sailor-guy come in, say he know about Hankel, and this is clue to great riches. So we all go get on boat and sail across ocean blue....Most people in this town human, but we meet Firebyrne who is another dragon guy, and he work with Hankel....Then we come down to basement to check and see if this correct basement, and we get attacked by more bandits, which is where wizard guy comes in."
Fenwick gets a conspiratorial look in his eye, and places his arm around the nervous Mervin's shoulder. "More treasure to be had!"
Mervin rocks back on his heels and squirms under the orc's friendly embrace,
"So you're here on a treasure hunt?" The wizard pushes away (not too impolitely),
"So let me get this straight. You're after this Hankel guy, and you're trying to find out if you're in the right place? Well? Are you in the right place?"
"Let's take a look at your burns first. My name is Riardon, BTW." Riardon explains as he looks after Mervin's wounds.
"Now we're talking." Mervin's standoffishness seems to ease a little at the offer of first aid. He moves to Riardon and allows the eladrin to inspect his burns,
"So you're some sort of healer?"
"We took the only boat which travels from Daunton to here, and it won't go back without us. So, we're the only ones who can help you find the man responsible for bringing you here and your current condition. And perhaps more important, we're your only ticket home."
The mysterious hand comes out again, appearing just in front of Jin's face in the form of a hand held up, palm to the ronin's nose,
"I've heard enough from yo-. Wait!" The hand disappears,
"You mean that no one else here knows how to get back to Daunton except this guy who brought you here?" Mervin sighs as if blowing pipesmoke from his mouth. He collapses to the landing, holding his head in his hands in disbelief.
[sblock=Status]SC1: 1 success / 0 failures
SC2: 1 success / 0 failures
Riardon raised a good point about playing a skill challenge against another PC, so I'm going to remove this one from the set. I would, however encourage you to continue RPing your attempts to bring him 'into the fold' so to speak, appealing primarily to a commitment to return him to Daunton safely.[/sblock]
