Zharne looks around, eying each individual carefully. You quickly notice that this tavern caters to a generally rough and tumble crowd. Most of the patrons are enjoying themselves; drinking, gambling and conversing with those around them. There are a couple of individuals who do not fit the norm; a well dressed gnome who is accompanied by several women who seem top be swooning over him, a group of half orcs that are sitting quietly at their table and seem to be drinking milk while eating their dinner, and a bearded human male sitting at the bar staring down into his drink, who ever so often glances over at the door.
Gloom enters the tavern. He walks to the bar and ask for a mug of ale. The bartender is a large dragonborn, who as he hands you the mug of ale smiles at you, revealing a toothless grin. "Er ya go" he spits out through his toothless mouth.
Once he receive it, he spots a table where they are playing some gambling game. He walks up to it and take a look, positioning himself to see most of the room. "Hey, I have a few gold pieces and some time to spend. Can I join you? I would just like to look a bit to understand the rules, I am not familiar with that game yet."
Hearing the words 'not familiar with the game' and 'a few gold pieces' the gamblers quickly grab another chair and makes room for Gloom. While watching the first few rounds of the game, Gloom also checks out the other patrons, noticing that a table of half orcs seem to nervous and a bearded man sitting at the bar keeps turning patrons away from the empty stool next to him.
Jehad walks into the Toothless gator looking around until he finds what he's looking for. He then walks up to the nearest, most somber person he can find. "Hey, do you know anything about a package about this high and this wide?" Jehad asks in his rough voice while slipping out his knife and smiling sincerely. The voluptuous woman in the low cut dress seems a bit startled at first but then bends down to look the gnome in the eye (and provide him with a fantastic view of her wares) and replies in a sultry voice "I don't be knowing of any package like that, but if you could point me in the right direction I'd most certainly be Interested" and she gives him a wink.
Thorn talks to the Halfling trader, Nino and his Dwarf and Human partners. He asks, "Is there someone here in the Gator that would buy such treasures, like your Bone carvings?" Thorn implies that he *might* be interested in purchasing (less than legal) items. With the mention of questionable activity Nino seems a little offended. "Look buddy, I run an upstanding operation. I wouldn't know anything about what you are hintin at", and with that he and his business partners get up and leave the table.
Left alone at the table Thorn observes the room for any suspicious behavior, but pretty much everything going on here seems odd and out of place to Thorn.
Waiting until most of the others have moved into the tavern, Minharath goes to the docks to ask about ships incoming from his homeland. He makes no attempt to hide the fact that he is expecting arrivals, but does not know the date of departure, nor the name of the ship they may have sailed on. He makes a show of being a put-out individual used to being accorded respect, and of resenting the dirty nature of the area. Able to get little or no information (as there is, in fact, no group of arrivals coming from his homeland), he stalks to the nearest tavern ('conveniently' the Toothless Gator), ostensibly to seek rumors on the matter. He ignores anyone who does not seem (to his somewhat affected persona) to have information relevant to his search, but keeps a weather eye out for trouble of both the expected and unexpected varieties.
Gellan sees the cleric enter, and excuses himself from his table with a promise to pick up the next round. Slipping through the crowd, he passes behind Minharath and murmurs his observations of the patrons in a voice barely audible above the crowd.
Watching the patrons of the tavern as he performs his ruse, Minharath sometimes finds his opinions slipping dangerously close to those he is feigning; he is so vastly out of place, these people behave in a crude manner driven by animal instincts. Their behavior isn't so much foreign, as all too simple. Their petty deceits are not relevant, do not disguise their purposes. The paths they walk seem laid out before Minharath, interweaving and over-crossing, a look here, a gesture there, each responding to the world in the most obvious manner expected. There is nothing here that does not fit the pattern.
But there is no pattern. The chaos of lines is just that, each line passing on it's own way, ignorant of how it affects and is affected by the others.
Out of everyone in the room one man stands out to Minharath. With his keen ability to read people he notices that there is one man at the bar who has not spoken to anyone other than to tell anyone who tries to sit in the empty stool beside him that the seat is taken, and that he is waiting for a friend. As Jehad asks the lady of the night about a package, the mans head jerks toward Jehad for just a moment, but then he dismisses the gnome and the woman he is talking to. That must be him.
With Gellan in tow, Minharath makes his way over to the table that Thorn is sitting at and he points out the bearded man. Excusing himself from the flirtatious woman Jehad makes his way over to the table as well, and after winning back the few coins he lost Gloom also joins the rest of the group. Minharath shares his findings with the others and you all keep an eye on the suspect.
After about an hour of reserving the seat next to him, and glancing at the door, the man lets out a deep sigh and gets up. He drops a few coins on the bar to pay for his drink and begins to make his way to the front door.
[sblock=Choices]
OK PC's, what are you going to do now?
Oh, and in regards to the Obsidian system for skill challenges, I had read it over and didn't completely understand it, so I just decided to handle skill challenges my own way (which isn't completely by the book, but its what I am comfortable with.)
[/sblock]
