(OOC All: Alright, I'm back. Let the game begin anew...)
Vemuz,
The local looks almost defiant for a moment, but then he observes your much greater bulk, your collection of scars, and your wild-eyed appearance. He gets up and moves away with his friends, further down the bar. You can hear him mutter:
"...better down there anyway...air's cleaner, I expect..." in a sullen undertone.
At the same time, however, you see, a bit farther down the bar, you observe another local, probably from the same crowd as this sorry lot, become redder and redder in the face as Malthas pelts him with subtle verbal barbs.
"Good thing you stood up to that Half-orc. Everyone knows that a Standishtown man is worth at least a third of an orc, so you two are more man than him," Malthas says.
The Standishtown man slowly turns, realizing he has just been insulted, and, as the full import of what Malthas says dawns upon him, lets out a furious bellow and swings at the halfling with an empty mug.
Malthas,
The two Standishtown-ers quickly gulp down their drinks, becoming very red in the face. They both stare suspiciously as you continue talking, realizing they are somehow being made fun of, but too drunk to make out your cleverly disguised jabs. That is, until you say,
"Good thing you stood up to that Half-orc. Everyone knows that a Standishtown man is worth at least a third of an orc, so you two are more man than him!" Not even the drunkest, stupidest Standishtown clam-digger could mistake that for an insult. With a furious bellow, the one on your left swings an empty mug at you, grazing you ear but not actually harming you.
Malachi,
As Vemuz faces down the nearest knot of Standishtown locals, you observe, out of the corner of your eye, another local take a swing at Malthas with an empty mug.
Nicodemus,
You swallow down the drink, feeling a pleasant glow in your belly. Jean Orleau, now very red in the face, swallows his, sways in his seat, and attempts to put his empty glass down. He misses the table, and the empty tumbler shatters on the floor.
(OOC: You do not observe what happens to Malthas, however, as you are across the tavern from him and with your back to the bar, where he is sitting.)
Antheos,
"As it happens," the captain says. "I was just heading upriver with my supercargo here to purchase more tobacco. Why don't you come along with me? There's a keg-raft waiting for us now."
He pauses, then peers at you closely.
"Say, have you ever been down by Port Andorra way? I seem t' recognize you from somewhere...what did y' say yer name was, again?"
Jonah,
The captain directs you and two orcish slaves to load provisions and the money chest on the keg raft, which is waiting upriver of Standishtown. The captain says he will follow in a minute or two.
The keg raft is a very large, ungainly thing, made of tobacco hogsheads loaded together. Three dirty, unkempt boatmen, leaning on their punting poles, are chewing tobacco.
"Barrels're empty now," one of them explains, in a colonial drawl. "We'll fill'em and lash'em back together an' raft 'em downriver in a few days..."
)
